


Cloud 9

by treesters



Series: Cloud 9 [1]
Category: Cloud 9 - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Drama & Romance, Mental Health Issues, POV Third Person, Romance, Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:14:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23411491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treesters/pseuds/treesters
Summary: In her senior year of high school, while attempting to leave the bird's nest, Jade Murayama finds out about an alternate dimension called the "Dream-World" after a deep sleep one night. Along the way, she finds out she's not alone in this, as two of her friends have experienced the same dimension.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Series: Cloud 9 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1684069





	Cloud 9

The soft September sunlight poured in the bedroom of Jade's. Her body entangled in the sheets she had carefully wrapped around herself last night, with a little fan blowing against her hair from her nightstand. Her cat, Athena, was curled up next to her face on her pillow, purring as it was the only way to lul Jade to sleep.

It was peaceful up until the blaring of her phone alarm screeching. Athena's ears perked up, twitching wildly as she knew it was time for the both of them to get up. She stretched, then sat on the pillow, staring down at her owner to turn it off. However, that moment didn't, as after five minutes, it simply snoozed itself.

Her doorknob jiggled for a moment before opening, a young man around Jade's age walked in. He let out a sigh, running his fingers through his freshly washed dark hair. There he stood, a thin, white long-sleeved shirt was bunched into his black, ripped skinny jeans, wearing fresh black converses. He grabbed Jade's curtains ripping them open. He then faced her, but she didn't budge.

"Good morning, Jade!" Chase's voice echoed throughout the room. Yet again, she didn't budge. He rolled his eyes as Athena jumped down from the bed, rubbing up against his leg. He crouched, giving her a scratch behind the ears. "She didn't wake up for you, huh? She's gonna be late for school...We're going to be late for school."

He rose from his spot, placing his hands on his hips as he studied her, her chest slowly rising and falling as she continued to dream. Was she always this much of a deep sleeper? He shook his head and walked up to her, grabbing ahold of her comforter. Please don't be naked, please don't be naked, he thought to himself before taking a deep breath.

With a swift motion of his hands, he turned his blushing face away, ripping the sheets off of her. The only thing he got out of her was a groan. His eyes darted back at her, seeing that she didn't move whatsoever. "Are you for real?" he sighed with defeat.

Then, an idea popped into Chase's head, a sly grin appearing on his face. "You know...What's really funny is I did buy some melon bread." He walked up to the window, "It's yours if you get up."

At that moment, Jade bounced out of bed, jumping towards Chase with a bubbly expression. "Really?! There is?!" she grabbed ahold of his hand, and Chase could practically see the sparkles surrounding her. Of course, food was the only way to bribe her, huh?

"Yes, there is. We'll both be waiting in the car," he sighed, rolling his eyes. "Please go get ready." And with that, he left the room as Jade grabbed her thick-framed glasses from her nightstand, batting her eyelashes. After brushing her hair and putting in her three hair clips, she ran over to her closet, trying to pick out the perfect outfit for today.

Senior year was going to be different, right? Nothing seemed to influence her perfect A, B grades in the past few years since she moved to Silverlake. It was a fresh start from where she last lived, but sadly, that did mean leaving some friends behind. However, it's what she needed. After all, she made wonderful friends, like Chase, one of her first friends when she moved to this town.

She wasn't going to let anything get in her way this year. She smiled at herself in the mirror, twirling around as her sky blue cardigan flew around with her black skirt. She then tucked her white dress shirt into her skirt, grabbing her backpack and slinging it on her shoulder. Looking at Athena and giving her a pat on the head, she was off, accompanying Chase in his car.

"I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad you bribed me with food, but it's so good!" Jade hummed as she took another bite of the melon bread Chase had bought her.

The two were sat by their designated lockers, Chase rummaging through his backpack with his tongue slightly out, getting all his stuff in his locker for the time being.

He scoffed, shoving fresh notebooks in his locker. "How else was I going to get you up?"  
"Hmmm, I dunno!" she exclaimed, shoveling more bread into her mouth. Her eyes then lit up, facing Chase once more, "Oh! That reminds me...Have you found a girlfriend yet?"

He froze for a second or more, then let out an awkward chuckle. "You're funny. We hung out all summer," he said, in an attempt to brush it off. "You should start packing your stuff—"  
"You're dodging the question here!" she shouted, puffing up her cheeks.  
Chase shut his locker, leaning against it with a sigh. "I see no point in it. I don't need one at all. It'll only distract me from this year, you know."  
"Liar," Jade hisses.  
"W-what?"

Jade wrapped her arm around his shoulders as he flinched, his face growing red. "Chase, you could be a girl's knight in shining armor!" She rested her chin on his shoulder, going further into detail, "She'll go on adventures with you and TJ! You know, in Dungeons and Dragons! Better yet, you could have so many cute cats in the future!"

Yeah, right, Chase thought to himself. As if anyone would make his heart beat faster than her or his face grow redder the more closer she got to him. He shook his head, trying to distract himself from that thought, grabbing Jade's hand from his shoulder and softly shoving her off. "Enough with planning my future today, we should get to class."  
"Right!" she chirped, grabbing her bookbag.

Chase's awkward, yet calm expression twisted into a disgusted one as he saw a blond, messy hair guy approach the two of them. Jade took notice of his expression, but before she could turn around in time, she was shoved into a locker by the said guy, a thud ringing out into the hallway.

"Well, if it isn't my graceful girlfriend," Blake smirked, leaning closer to Jade's heated face. Her sketchbook was pressed against her face as her beady, brown eyes studied him. "How are ya doin' today, sweetheart?"  
"G-great!" She was clearly in a daze, maybe it was the fact she was dizzy or wasn't expecting that whatsoever.

Chase, looking unfazed as ever, waved his hand to the two of them. "Well, I'm gonna book it. See ya, Jade."

As he angrily stomped away from the two, Jade's smile faltered as she adjusted her glasses. "Morning, Blake...Did you need something?"  
"Aww, what's wrong?" he teased, grabbed her by the waist, "Can't say good morning to you before class?"  
"N-no, I never said that..."  
"What's wrong then?" he asked as they both walked down the glimmering hallway. Blake took notice of how quiet Jade was, then rolled his eyes. "Is Andrews botherin' you?"  
"No! He's perfectly fine," she looked to her feet as she continued to walk, still in Blake's tight grip. "You just need to be more respectful to him. He's human too, you know."  
Blake rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah."

After being dropped off to her class, Jade took a seat in a partially empty room. For how late Chase claimed she was, she seemed pretty early this time around. She rested her head on her hand, opening her sketchbook and doodling away.

Before she knew it, the school day went by. However, time was slow, yet too fast. The mornings full of lectures about senior year and how important it was, syllabus and updated school rules were talked about in every class. Luckily for her, lunch was approaching.

In her English class, she stared at the clock. It was just about 11:30 and she could feel herself bouncing her leg as she watched the seconds hand on it. She then heard her lunch bell chime out of the speakers and she bounced to Chase's seat. "Lunchtime!" He leaned forward, letting out a couple of swears underneath his breath as he was startled.

The two of them walked down the hallway, tightly holding onto their backpacks. Jade looked up at Chase, rubbing the back of her neck, "I'm really sorry about Blake this morning."  
Chase hummed as he looked at his phone, "It's alright. He's always like that anyway."

She remained silent, peering down at her legs. Sure, he was always like that, but it still wasn't right. There was this constant tension between them, but she didn't know why. Something had happened between them for sure, but what happened? Before she could speak, Chase interrupted her and her thoughts.

"Hey, TJ saved us a spot," he waved his phone with a smile.  
Seeing him smile brought a smile on her face, "Ah, how sweet of him! Tell him I said thanks!"  
"Will do," he nodded, tapping away at his phone keyboard.

They then arrived at the cafeteria. To their surprise, it was fairly packed. Of course, it was. It was the first day after all. Chase perched himself upon his tip-toes as Jade clutched onto his backpack again, to make sure she didn't get lost. It was a routine of theirs since middle school.  
Chase's brown eyes grew wide, giving Jade a quick smile before tugging her along. That must've meant he spotted TJ at a table.

And she was right. There TJ was, a fella with long, curly locks of ginger hair tied back into a messy ponytail was waving along with him as he leaned back on his chair, attempting to balance it on two legs. His forest green sweater complimented his appearance well as dark freckles dotted his face and hands.

"TJ!" Chase called out, causing TJ's eyes to snap open. He then looked towards Chase's general direction, giving the two of them a wave.  
"Yo! How's it goin'?" He smirked at them.  
"It's tiring," Chase scoffed. "I swear I almost fell asleep in all my classes today."  
Jade twirled her hair with her index finger with a giggle, "You were totally dozing off in English."

As they both set their stuff down and unpacked, Jade pulled out her phone instead of her lunch. She looked down at it. Not a word from Blake since this morning. She sighed. He did have class at the moment and it was a shame they never had lunch together besides freshman year. She still shot him a text, either way, typing, "Hey! How's your day doing, dear?"

TJ nudged Chase, a smirk growing on his face as he reached down to his backpack, "Hey, you know what can do, man?" He brought up a book to his face, one labeled, "Dungeons and Dragons" to be more specific.  
Chase grabbed the book immediately as his face heated up, shoving it back in his bag. "No," he sneered. "We have other time to do that."  
"Aww, you're bummer drummer," TJ rolled his eyes. "Why not though?"

Chase's face was still as pink as ever as his eyes trailed to Jade, who was silently looking at her phone, scrolling through whatever social media she was on today. TJ caught notice of it and he snickered, giving him a rough punch to the arm. "Alright, I see how it is," he winked.  
"No, I just wanna eat," he choked out, shoving his arm into his paper bag lunch, grabbing a small bag of chips.  
"Yeah," TJ nodded, stealing a chip as soon as Chase opened the bag, "uh-huh."

The three of them were interrupted as a tall platinum blond-haired male walked over to their table, tapping the surface of it quietly, but loud enough to where it caught there attention. He cleared his throat as he began to speak, his voice deeper than the guys sitting at the table, "Hey."

Chase and TJ looked up as Jade froze in her spot, noticing the voice instantly. He was wearing an unbuttoned fern green dress shirt over a white long-sleeved shirt, his dark blue jeans shoved into his black combat boots. His eyes were ice blue and his stare was cold, dark bags accompanied them as well. His cheeks grew a shade darker as he realized it was his queue to speak again. "Right, uhm," he sighed, "could I sit here? Just for today."

TJ smiled, giving him his signature peace sign, "Of course, Colin!" He then paused, looking at Jade and Chase, "Wait, that's cool, right?" They both nod along, Jade seeming a bit hesitant as she nodded after Chase did. She then scooted a bit closer to Chase, just barely touching shoulders with him.

Colin sighed, slumping down in a seat instantly, putting his silver laptop on the table. "Thank you," he muttered as he pried open his laptop. He then cracked his neck, sitting up fairly straight as he typed away on his keyboard.

Chase glanced at Jade, who seemed a lot quieter than she normally did, her phone practically shoved in her face. She didn't bother to draw either. TJ then slung his arm around Chase, looking at Colin. "So, why are ya sittin' here?"  
Colin's eyes didn't tear away from his laptop, instead, he kept on typing. "Library was closed. It always is on the first day."  
"Bummer..." he sighed. Then, a lightbulb went off in his head. "Hey, you should hang with us this year."  
He shook his head as he stopped typing. "I need to focus this year."  
"Ugh," TJ groaned, throwing his hands in the air. "You always say that! You look like a college student already! You should come to Chase and I's campaign this year, we need more people in order to play."

Chase sighed, giving TJ a firm smack on the back of his head. TJ hissed, rubbing the back of his head, but was interrupted by Chase. "Sorry 'bout him, he's super hyper right now."  
"No need to worry," Colin waved his hand, getting back to whatever work he was doing on his laptop.

The cafeteria was loud, as people were chattering about. TJ and Chase were no exception, loudly talking about what video games they had played over the summer. They both attempted to imitate certain characters' voices and laughed in the end, as their voices always cracked at some point in time.

Jade slowly moved away from Chase, as she noticed he was having more fun. She still kept her phone in her face, daring not to touch her sketchbook. Even though she wanted to draw out her feelings, she didn't want to drag the attention to her. No matter how much it ate at her, she couldn't help but feel anxious as she didn't receive a text from Blake. There hadn't been a good morning text in weeks. Hadn't been a good night text in a few days. It was probably nothing personal, right?

"Hey," Colin's deep voice disrupted Jade's thoughts. "What's your class after this?"  
"Ah, uh," she shoved her hands between her thighs shyly. "Psychology, I believe."  
"Hm," he bobbed his head slightly. "Me too."  
"Really? Wanna sit by each other if we can?"  
Without a word, he stared at her. He then gave her a somewhat warm smile and nodded. Jade's eyes widened, as it was completely out of character for him to do that...At least recently.

As the lunch bell rang for the next selection of kids, Colin and Jade attempted to walk to their class through the crowded hallways. Colin was snacking on bits of his lunch he didn't get to and Jade tightly pressed her books against her chest. Her heartbeat was too loud, but a lot of other things were loud too, and she wasn't talking about the people around them.

Colin peered down at her tiny figure. He, in fact, towered over her, as she was only 5'5" compared to him, 5'11". He cleared his throat, "What's wrong?"  
"I-uhm, well..." she began, adjusting her glasses. "Blake hasn't been texting me recently. I don't know if he's been busy or what, but I haven't got to talk to him as of late."  
"Hm," his eyes grew cold again, looking forward. "Sorry to hear. You have any classes with him?"  
"Nope," she sighed as they made their way in the classroom. They set their stuff down, sitting next to each other as desks were partnered up, yet in rows.  
"What a shame," he said, a bit bluntly. He once again opened his laptop. "At least you have a class with me."

Jade froze for a moment, looking straight at Colin. He stopped in his tracks too, scratching the back of his head. They didn't believe what they had just heard.

"What do you mean?" she asked, tilting her head.  
"Oh—I meant cause we're friends," Colin said, pausing briefly. "Right?"  
Jade smiled softly, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear, "Right."

The day carried on as always, however, the anxiety grew in Jade, creating a pit in her stomach. She caught attention on how much she was fidgeting in her class...Tapping the pencil against her notebook, bouncing her leg, and eye-balling the clock fairly often. It wasn't until the last bell rang and she nearly hopped out of her spot, grabbing her backpack as she made her way into the hallway. She spotted Chase, who was in the hallway across from her, waving to a few of his friends. He then stopped as they met eyes and she walked on over to him.

"Heya," he smiled.  
"You look pretty happy," she chuckled to herself.  
He put his hands on his hips, "Well, yeah. It is the end of the day, I can go home and play video games or sleep. Still thinkin' about what I should do."  
She rocked on her heels, peering around for any sign of her boyfriend. She seemed lost in her looming anxiety. "Mhm..."  
"Is Blake driving you home today?" he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder as she swiftly turned to face him, her hair flowing along.  
"Uhm, I think so," she flashed him a quick smile.

Her phone buzzed in her cardigan pocket. Her eyes grew wide, fishing for it just before pulling it out and opening it. It was a text from Blake, reading, "In the parking lot." She sighed, of course, he didn't answer any other text or question she had.

"I have to go now," she rubbed the back of her head. "See you tomorrow?"  
"Yep," he nodded. "I'll text you later, alright?"  
"Alrighty."

Jade rolled down the window of Blake's car, completely disconnected from reality as she studied the trees and environment around them. The drive home was quiet besides the sound of rap music blasting from the stereo. To be quite honest, though she didn't mind it all the time, the mumbled singing irked Jade in a different way. She wasn't sure if she was angry with Blake or too tired from today. Her eyelids did feel heavier and her chest ached more than they did this morning...She felt the lurking anxiety once more, but it was different. Something was going to happen, wasn't it?

"Hey, we're here," Blake tapped Jade, who snapped back to reality. His seatbelt was unbuckled and he was leaning towards her with a grin on his face. She nodded, grabbing her backpack and pulling it up to her lap."  
Thank you for the ri—"

Her sentence was muffled as Blake pressed his lips onto hers. Though it was normally sweet of him to do that, she didn't want that today. She tried backing up, mumbling his name while he was still attempting to kiss her. However, she was pulled closer by his strong arms. Her hands roamed, trying to get a grip on his shirt to see if she could shove him off.

After a few seconds, she managed to push him off, wiping her mouth. "I-I'm sorry," she muttered, rubbing her arm where he had gripped her. "Not today..."  
"Huh?" he scoffed. "Again?"  
"Again? We—Blake, we haven't hung out in a month or two," she shook her head, holding onto her backpack once more. "I'm really tired from today, maybe later though," she exhaled, her cheeks flushing a light pink.  
"Right," he let out a disappointed sigh. "Whatever, I gotta smoke." Jade remained silent as she tried opening the door, but he continued to talk. "Is Andrews picking you up tomorrow again? Or am I doing that?"

Jade gulped, fumbling with her hands as she had one leg out of the door. For some reason, she didn't want to answer, but she knew what would happen if she didn't. "You can, I don't mind. I just don't want to be late."  
"'Kay, I'll see you later then," he waved at her. She gently waved back, slamming the door behind her.

She groggily made it to her bedroom, tossing her backpack on the side of her bed. She fell to her knees, draping her torso over her bed as she saw Athena peacefully sleeping on the bed. She smiled as she outstretched her arm to pet her, her ear twitched as Jade made contact with her.

While she was petting Athena, her eyelids fell slowly, falling asleep to the sounds of her purrs. It seemed like this day lasted for eons and her bed was comforting, like hugging an old friend. She was grateful she could finally rest.


End file.
